The Charmed Seven: The Seventh Brother
by Lu-Larabee-Standish
Summary: A witch and a half-Whitelighter adopted some magical children after rescuing them from danger. The parents both died at the same time, leaving the adult sons to continue their work of protecting 'innocents'.
1. Teaser New March 2005

**The Charmed Seven AU (Charmed & Mag. 7 crossover): The Seventh Brother**

This is the first story in the AU.

Disclaimer: Charmed and The Magnificent Seven don't belong to me and I don't make any money from this story.

Warnings: There's a death mentioned of an OMC (no graphic details) and a death of an OFC in one chapter (I'll fore-warn at the top of that chapter.) I wouldn't say it's very graphical, but I describe it a little bit.

Main Characters: Buck, Ezra.

AU Type: Charmed/Mag. 7 crossover although there are a few original ideas not from Charmed. All characters are either from Mag. 7 or are Originals created by me - there are no Charmed characters in this story. I love Charmed and Mag. 7 so decided to make an AU to cross the two universes into one. All the seven are adults in this story.

Closed AU until I've posted some back-stories to set up the characters' past.

Author Notes: I am English but have tried to use American words and spellings as much as possible.

Thanks to Michelle for getting me into Charmed and for all her support since we became M7 friends through a Yahoo Group.

Thanks to Wendy for pointing out a slight error about premonitions in Chapter 4, which I have since ammended.

Beta: I don't have a beta for this story, but have checked very thoroughly using spelling and grammar checkers plus reading it all through carefully.

I have tried to explain Charmed terminology for any non-Charmed fans who might read.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

**New Teaser – written 02/03/05 to replace Teaser about the children being rescued (Parts from old Teaser will be in relevant Family Past stories.)**

The police car sped along the road, toward the camp-site. Inside the car were two blond men: Detective Josiah Sanchez and his younger brother, Chris Larabee. Chris was driving as he was better at driving at high speeds than Josiah. Josiah's usual partner had recently been killed, meaning that Josiah was currently partner-less. Chris had gone to the police-station and told Josiah that trouble was brewing at a private camp-site not too far away, so Josiah had taken Chris with him to help. Chris had actually seen a man getting killed there in his last premonition.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" asked Chris, clearly frustrated that the car couldn't go any faster than it already was doing.

"We'll get there in time, Brother," reassured Josiah, sounding more confident than he actually felt.

They finally arrived at the camp-site and parked. Both men quickly exited the car, not bothering to lock it up. They were in too much of a hurry.

They ran into the grounds and stared in dismay. The clothed body of a man lay on the ground, severely burned all over. Chris rushed over, hoping that somehow the man was still alive and could still be saved. Chris checked for a pulse, but found nothing. The blond hung his head sadly.

Josiah joined Chris and took the blond in his arms. "I'm so sorry, Chris," he said softly as Chris buried his face in Josiah's chest.

"We were meant to save him," muttered Chris, his voice muffled and sad.

"At least I can stop anyone discovering what really happened here," said Josiah. "If anyone checked this body, they'd discover that these burns weren't caused by anything normal."

"His son's going to be heart-broken."

"So is his wife, but we can't undo what's been done, Brother."

From a distance a man with dark-brown hair watched for a moment; then millions of little blue and white lights (called orbs) enveloped him, seeming to turn him into more of them, then all the lights disappeared up into the sky, and the man was gone.

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Monday morning was never a good time for twenty-eight-year-old Buck Wilmington, and this cold, wet one was no exception. Buck did not look forward to arriving at his new office job on the other side of Denver. He didn't know anyone there and he had never wanted to work in a law firm before, but he had no choice. It was the company his late father had worked for - the one the man had gone on a company outing with when he'd had his mysterious 'accident'. Buck didn't think it was an accident that had killed his dad - otherwise his mother wouldn't have been so secretive about the whole thing. She had just told him that his father had been killed in an accident and hadn't given any details about how he'd died.

He was living alone in his mom's apartment now - she had gone to another state, away from all reminders of her loving husband. She had turned the lease for the apartment over to her son, who hadn't wanted to leave the place he loved. His mother promised she'd call him while she was away - but so far she'd only called once a week; Buck had been expecting her to be in touch more often somehow.

Buck arrived at the high-rise and drove his small car to the parking lot at the back of the building. He already had a permit to allow him to park there as an employee of one of the companies inside.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

"I call upon the Goddess of Luck, to help me now and bring me Buck," chanted the teenager with shoulder-length, dark-brown hair.

"You call that a spell?" asked Chris Larabee, the young man's adopted older brother of thirty-years-old with short blond hair.

"At least my spells work," answered the male who'd chanted, named John Dunne, or JD for short. He had to admit it wasn't the best spell he'd written - but if it did the job, then that was good enough.

While Chris had lived with JD, the younger adopted brother had always had more success with the spells he'd written. Chris's spells worked sometimes, but he wasn't so good at writing them and often there were unwanted side-effects to them. JD's were good enough to be put into a book and be marketed; although that wasn't something that Josiah, the oldest adopted brother, would ever approve of.

"What's the goddess of luck called?" asked Vin, another adopted brother, standing beside JD; he doubted there was such a being.

"I didn't think I could put duck or the 'F' word in a spell and that was all I could think of to rhyme with our innocent's first name," said JD. He was upset that his older brothers all had to pick on him as he was the youngest and couldn't think of a decent summoning spell today.

"Gentlemen? I bear good tidings," said Ezra Standish, suddenly appearing from out of thin air. The short man with medium-brown hair was twenty-five and was the only adopted brother who had a demon for a father. At six, he'd been rescued from a group of demons, after 'The Source of all Evil' (the king of the Underworld) had found out about one of his demon subjects fathering a child with a witch. It was unheard of in the underworld for a demon to do such a thing and The Source had intended to have the child and his mother killed as punishment. The boy had been rescued by Chris and the Potters' Whitelighter (an angel who was sent from Heaven to assist and guide witches), Nathan. Unfortunately Ezra's cowardly mother had gone into hiding while Ezra was being attacked, so Mr. Potter had taken the boy in, as he had nowhere else to go. Ezra's mother hadn't contacted her son since.

"You've found our innocent?" guessed Chris. They had to find him before he could be killed like he had been in Chris's premonition. They had already failed to save Buck's father who had been their last innocent, who had been killed.

"Not exactly. I have procured a situation with the wealthiest legal organization in the vicinity."

"What did he say?" asked Chris, still not used to the long words the witch-demon used.

"He's got a job with Kennedy and Sons lawyers," elaborated JD, who could always decipher Ezra's long words.

"Wow!" exclaimed Chris. That was the richest, biggest law firm in Denver and even the office assistants got paid a lot there. "Hold on. Aren't they very particular about who they take on?"

"That is why they selected me for the position of Senior Office Clerk."

Chris held back a laugh - they chose a part-demon, part-witch over an ordinary human! Then the company name rang a bell. "Isn't that the company Mr. Wilmington Senior was working for when he had that accident on the company trip?"

"Your conjecture is accurate, Chris. That was why I procured the interview immediately following my observation of the advertisement," answered Ezra smugly.

"Why can't you talk like we do, Ezra?" asked Chris, frustration in his voice. He had no idea what Ezra had just said.

"Yes, it was Wilmington Senior's company. Ezra got the interview right after he saw the vacancy in the paper," explained JD. He was getting sick of being Ezra's translator.

Chris suddenly had a thought and looked at Ezra. "When did you hear you got the job, Ezra?" Then he suddenly added, "Try and answer in short words?"

"I opened the letter about five minutes ago," answered Ezra, remembering to use basic English.

"JD recited a spell to bring Buck to him about five minutes ago!"

"That's hardly bringing him to me though, is it?" said JD, annoyed that Ezra was making more progress at getting closer to their innocent than him. He knew that spell wouldn't be very effective, if it even worked at all. The brothers all knew that Buck had got a job at the lawyers as well, to try and find out what had really happened to his father.

"Ezra, are you starting your job today?" Upon seeing a nod from Ezra, Chris requested, "Do you think you could invite Buck here tonight?"

"He would be suspicious if Ezra invited him over tonight - they haven't even met yet," reasoned JD. It would do no good to get Buck suspicious of them, otherwise they'd never be able to help their innocent. Anyway, Chris had obviously forgotten that Vin, Nathan and Ezra were going to see a movie tonight - they were entitled to some leisure time, even if they were witches who had to help protect people.

"Isn't one of your powers mind-control?" asked Chris rhetorically.

"You are correct. I think I could use it to persuade young Mr. Wilmington to visit soon." Ezra had remembered to use only words which he thought Chris understood this time.

"Good, try persuading Buck to come to dinner tomorrow night. I'm sorry, I forgot you had plans for tonight. You better get ready for work now or you'll be late on your first day."

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

"Excuse me? Do you know where Mr. Anderson's office is?" asked Buck as he walked along the corridor toward the smartly dressed, brown-haired man.

The man looked at him and smiled, "You must be the new guy."

"Who told you?" asked Buck. Even the pretty receptionist hadn't known he was a new employee.

"There isn't much I don't know. My name's Eddie by the way," answered Ezra. He had made an alias for himself when he'd applied for this job, and created all the necessary false documentation for his new persona. He had decided to pretend he'd been working here a while, so Buck couldn't get suspicious of Ezra for starting here the same day as him - not that Buck would be so clever to think anything of that coincidence.

"Mine's Buck. When I had the interview for the office assistant position, it wasn't in Mr. Anderson's office, so I never had to find it. This place is so huge, I don't think I'd ever find it without directions."

"His office is quite far from here. Let me take you there, then we can get acquainted, seeing as we're likely to bump into each other again some time." Ezra was very good at fitting in wherever he had to - his mother had told him it was a skill he'd inherited from his demon-father.

"Thanks, Eddie," accepted Buck, glad that he'd made his first work-friend already. Perhaps the day wouldn't be so bad after all.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

"This is Mr. Anderson's office. I work in that office there," said Ezra pointing toward a closed door farther along the corridor. Then he handed Buck a piece of paper he had prepared in case he met Buck that day; "Here's my extension so you can call if you need anything. Perhaps we could meet for lunch?" Ezra turned on his mind-control power as he spoke and planted a positive answer in Buck's mind. It had been very lucky when Ezra had found out he would be working not far from Buck.

"I'd be glad to have lunch with you, I don't have any plans for then. How about I come by your office at twelve thirty?" He'd leave off asking any secretaries out for lunch that day - he didn't want to offend Eddie by turning down his offer.

"I can't wait. See you then," said Ezra with a smile, then walked to his office.

Buck turned back to Mr. Anderson's door and knocked. It was promptly answered by Mr. Anderson, Buck's new boss. The man was in his early fifties, with dark hair that was slightly graying.

"Hi Buck, come in and I'll make us some coffee," greeted the man. Buck looked so like Mr. Wilmington Senior. It had been so easy to persuade higher powers that Buck was the best-suited candidate for the job.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

Ezra Standish stood waiting for Buck, who was running late. His new friend finally left Anderson's office where Ezra assumed he'd been all morning, learning about his duties from his new boss. Buck would share the office with his boss as he was only an office assistant.

"Sorry, I'm late; he sure talks a lot," said Buck putting on his coat as he walked.

"We're going to my place for lunch - it's not far," explained Ezra. His brothers would be surprised - they hadn't been so sure the mind-control would work on Buck. It didn't work on everyone. They didn't think he'd be so lucky and meet Buck so early in the day - luck was certainly on Ezra's side today.

Ezra led Buck out of the building and toward his Jaguar car. Ezra couldn't keep using his blinking power to disappear from one place then appear the next second in another. The Elders looking down on him would see that as personal gain (even if it was a demon power and not a witch one) and he would suffer consequences for doing it then. So he'd learnt to drive, passed the test on the first attempt and bought a flashy black Jaguar to travel about in.

"Nice car, Eddie," complimented Buck - his car looked like scrap in comparison.

"Perhaps if there's time after lunch I could take you for a spin in it."

Buck smiled; Eddie's car would be great for riding in, and he wondered what its top speed was. Then he got into the passenger seat and strapped himself in, as Eddie fastened himself in and started the engine.

**To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ten minutes later, Buck and Ezra had parked on Ezra's home's driveway and had exited the car.

Now Buck stood facing the house - one that he'd never seen the likes of before. "Wow! Great place, Eddie," commented Buck as he looked at the impressive three-story, brown brick house complete with small second-story front balconies.

"It's not really my place. My oldest brother bought it when it was back on the market after my adoptive parents died. Then he asked us to move in with him, as we'd all been living elsewhere. As we're a close-knit family, we're happy to live together."

"How many of you are there?" asked Buck curiously. When Eddie had said about his oldest brother it meant that there must be at least one other brother who wasn't the oldest.

"I have five adopted brothers: two younger and three older. We were all adopted by the Potters." Ezra thought he might as well include Nathan to explain that man's constant presence in the house - it was more believable than the truth that Nathan was an angel who was their Whitelighter. Almost every witch had a Whitelighter who guided them and protected the witches from evil (or tried to when they could).

Ezra was glad that all his brothers would be out, as they all had places to be then - it was too soon for anyone to slip up and call him 'Ezra' instead of 'Eddie'. He didn't have much faith in his brothers remembering his assumed identity's name. Ezra needed to maintain Buck's trust and he would lose it if Buck found out his new friend was lying about his name.

For his assumed identity, Ezra had changed as few details as possible about himself. His real name was the only thing that would make people suspicious if they ran a background check on it. 'Ezra Standish' wasn't registered on any human databases, but 'Eddie Spelling' was, thanks to JD hacking into some databases and creating the man's records. The youngest brother was an expert with computers and could do just about anything with them. Ezra couldn't have records for his real name because demons all knew that name. If they knew where the man worked without any back-up from his brothers, they could attack in a group, outnumbering and easily killing him.

Ezra led Buck inside, eager to see if he could obtain some more information about his innocent over lunch.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

"Wow, this place is great!" said Buck, examining the wood paneling on the house's interior walls. The house looked very old and Buck thought it must be worth a fortune, judging by its antique appearance.

"I'm glad it meets your approval," said Ezra as he closed the ornate, colored glass-paneled front door gently behind him. He always closed that door gently because he didn't imagine they'd be able to find replacement glass if it got broken. Ezra's brothers usually slammed the door and every time they did it, the man cringed and waited nervously to see if the glass would break. Thankfully, it had remained intact every time.

"How long have you lived here, Eddie?" asked Buck, anxious to learn more about his new friend. He envied his friend for having a share in such an amazing house.

Before Ezra could answer, his dark-haired, younger brother JD walked down the stairs. 'Just what I need,' thought Ezra. He was well aware that JD's memory for names wasn't usually very good. Even if the teenage boy had typed Ezra's new name numerous times while he had been creating the man's legitimate identity, JD might still forget it.

Buck looked toward the dark-haired teen coming down the stairs and froze in place.

"Ezra? Is this Buck?" asked the eighteen-year-old as he walked over to the statue-like man and looked at him. He knew that the man wouldn't realize he was being studied, because not even a micro-second was passing for him while he was frozen. JD was pretty certain it was their innocent, but he was surprized that Ezra had met him and got him to visit so soon - it seemed like Ezra was having a lot of good luck since JD had cast that home-made spell to summon Buck.

"Yes, he is indeed Buck Wilmington. I assumed you'd be at college," answered Ezra, trying not to show his annoyance at JD's presence - Ezra felt sure that the youngest brother would say something and give him away.

"I can't believe you managed to get him to come here so soon," exclaimed JD, annoyed that Ezra had found Buck so soon - his spell was meant to summon Buck to HIM, not to Ezra. "I had a free period so I got Nathan to bring me back here to study for a while."

"That has personal gain written all over it. How many times must I remind you that you aren't supposed to use Nathan as a free Taxi-service?" reproached Ezra glaring at his brother.

"I also hoped to find some time to look through The Book again and try to work out what demon could've killed Buck's dad," added JD, justifying using Nathan to transport him home.

"That's an admirable defense, Master Dunne. I commend you for fabricating such convincing justification at a second's notice," mocked Ezra. He knew that they didn't have enough to go on to identity which particular demon had killed Mr. Wilmington Senior and was sure that JD was just using the excuse so the sometimes easily deceived elders would believe JD wasn't using their Whitelighter for the wrong reasons.

The Elders were the higher-ranked angels who lived in Heaven. They were in charge of the Whitelighters and the witches, although it was very rare for them to communicate with witches. They watched the planet's goings-on from above and had more knowledge on supernatural things than Whitelighters or witches. The Elders had laid down strict rules which witches and Whitelighters had to obey or they'd face consequences inflicted on them by the powerful Elders. One of these rules said that witches mustn't use magic for their own personal gain and that included using their Whitelighters for quick and free travel unless it was to help others. Breaking rules such as that one could lose the rule-breaking witches their Whitelighters. The Potter family knew they were very lucky to get as much of their Whitelighter's time as they did and didn't want to put that in jeopardy.

All Whitelighters had many charges all over the world and could hear their charge's calls and go to them at a moment's notice. They could also sense all their charges and could orb to where-ever they could sense they were. Nathan was able to spend a lot of his time with the five witches because each one was counted as only one charge meaning that he didn't have many other witches to look after.

"Umm, Ez? I forgot that name you're using." JD looked guiltily at his brother - he hadn't meant to forget his older brother's new name, but somehow he had.

"Eddie Spelling," snapped Ezra, irritated at JD's terrible memory for names. "I see you've mastered freezing people without motioning with your arms, Master Dunne."

"Yeah, I've been practicing," answered JD with a grin. "How're we gonna tell him we're witches and we have to protect him?" It could take ages before they could be sure Buck wouldn't run when they told him the truth. They didn't usually have to tell their innocents the truth - just protect them from danger, but it was more serious this time as this demon had already killed the man's father and could end up killing the whole Wilmington family before they could find out more information and kill him first. They needed to tell Buck the truth so they could warn him of the demon. Chris believed he might be able to get a premonition from Buck to help them see the demon attacking him in the future - this would at least show them what the evil supernatural looked like, as they hadn't seen the demon so far. All demons looked different but were mostly pictured in the witches' magical book, so they could match the ones they'd seen with the ones in there, then they'd be able to find out the particular demon's details and how to destroy it.

Buck became unfrozen and looked at JD. "Hi, I'm Buck Wilmington," he greeted in a friendly manner.

JD blinked his eyes once and froze him again. "Sorry; it doesn't work for long that way, but I'm gonna keep practicing to see if I can make it work for longer. I'll get outta your hair and give you a chance to talk to him some more"  
JD blinked his eyes and Buck unfroze. "Hi Buck, my name's JD and I'm Eddie's youngest brother. I can't stay - I've got a class at my college soon, but maybe I'll see you again sometime," said the teen, hardly pausing until he'd finished speaking. The teen had a talent for reeling off long sentences or several put together and the brothers sometimes had trouble trying to understand all he had said in one go. JD walked down the rest of the stairs with his backpack draped over his shoulder and left the house.

Buck blinked, slightly dazed by the teen's introduction and good-bye all put into one.

"Would you like something to eat?" offered Ezra as he walked through the house to the kitchen.

Buck followed after the man; "Sure, what've you got?" Buck gasped as Ezra opened the refrigerator to reveal shelves full of food.

"Anything you like - take your pick," said Ezra. "JD has a weekend job in the local supermarket and gets discounts and freebies which he shares with us," he explained upon seeing Buck's surprised expression.

"I'd like to meet your other brothers sometime," said Buck, as he took out some salad items from the salad drawer, then took out an open loaf of bread and some butter. He had started being a healthy eater, not wanting to gain weight - that would make him unattractive to women. Buck had a deep respect for women and enjoyed being in their company. He dated as often as he could - he was an expert at charming women into going on dates with him. Now he had a full-time job he'd probably end up too tired to see women some evenings. His mother had always been nagging him to settle down and raise a family - maybe he should consider doing that now that he was earning so much money.

Ezra took a knife out of the cutlery drawer, jars of peanut butter and jelly out of the food cupboard for him, then two plates out of an overhead cupboard. He took some slices of bread out of the open loaf which Buck had placed on the counter along with the salad items for Buck's sandwich.

"Buck? What do you think of your new job?" asked Ezra, as he spread butter onto slices of bread. He needed to ease the man into trusting him, then maybe he'd be able to tell him the truth about why he had befriended him.

"It's okay. My boss is the nicest one I've had yet - even made me coffee all morning!" answered Buck happily. He liked Mr. Anderson, but there was something creepy about how nice he was.

"I wouldn't get too used to it - he's probably only being nice because you're new," warned Ezra, making a mental note to dig up some background information on Mr. Anderson soon. Nice bosses were very rare and a lot of them turned out to be warlocks or other evil supernaturals. Ezra finished buttering slices of bread and started making Buck's salad sandwich, intent on being a good host to his guest.

"My dad never mentioned Mr. Anderson when he worked there, but he worked on the same floor, not far away. Mr. Anderson says he's been with the company for ten years and my dad was there during that time; something doesn't add up," admitted Buck, feeling he could open up to his new friend.

"Where is your father now?" asked Ezra as he placed Buck's salad sandwich onto a plate and handed it to his friend. He had to pretend he knew nothing about Buck or his father, or the other man would get suspicious.

"He's dead," said Buck sadly. "Thing is my mom won't tell me how exactly he died. He was on a trip with the law-firm when he died in an 'accident'. Then my mom moved soon after and hasn't been back to visit since."

"I'm sorry about your dad, Buck," said Ezra sympathetically. "You're not just working for the company for the good pay and excellent added extras I take it?" chanced Ezra, feeling he was really making good headway with Buck.

"To be honest, I'm only there to find out how Dad really died. I knew they'd choose me with my qualifications. Dad always wanted me to work hard to get a good job, so it was lucky I listened to him. Once I've got justice for dad's death, I'm planning to get a job elsewhere. I'll have my experience at a successful law firm to give me a better chance of finding something quicker then."

'Don't push Buck too hard, Ezra,' thought Ezra to himself - he couldn't afford to scare his innocent away or Buck might get killed as a result. He decided to continue lunch with his friend, talking about less serious things - it was safer for the time-being.

**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

As it drew near to five o'clock, Buck started tidying up his things in Mr. Anderson's office, preparing to go home. He'd just have to phone Rebecca and tell her they'd have to postpone their date for another night - he felt too tired for dating tonight.

Mr. Anderson left the office early, trusting Buck to lock up. He'd told Buck that a family emergency had come up and he had to go and sort that out.

Just as Anderson walked to the elevator, a man not much older than Buck, with blond hair walked out of Ezra's office and surveyed the hall. After seeing there was no-one around, as Anderson had just left in the elevator, he walked toward Anderson's office and knocked on the door. It was answered almost straight away by Buck. Chris had met Buck before - that was when he'd received the premonition of the brunet being killed.

"Can I help you?" asked Buck politely, wondering what the man who looked about his age wanted. Buck didn't recognize Chris as being the man he'd bumped into previously.

"Are you Buck?" asked the blond. "I have to warn you about something."

"Warn me?" asked Buck in surprise. "Is this some kind of religious thing? You selling bibles?" It wasn't normal for someone to approach Buck and warn him about anything.

"No. I know how your father died. The same thing could happen to you unless you avoid it."

"I don't understand," said Buck in a shaky voice. This man was starting to scare him and Buck didn't believe that he was in danger, or that this guy could possibly know how his dad died.

The man stepped forward quickly and put his hand on Buck's arm. Then the man's eyes closed and it seemed like he was in a trance.

"Are you all right?" asked Buck, concerned about the man's condition.

"Oh no," the man said in an upset voice, "they're going to kill a woman with long, brown hair related to you."

Buck tore himself away from the blond and said in a loud, angry voice, "Leave me alone, you...you...psycho." Buck didn't believe a word of what the blond had said - it was just a coincidence that his mom had long, brown hair, Buck told himself. He'd heard of these weird people who believed they could see into the future - it was just a con to get money from anyone who believed in all that mumbo-jumbo.

"This isn't a joke - your father was killed by someone who isn't human and he's going to come after you," explained Chris sternly. After a heated discussion with Ezra about how slowly things were going, he'd decided to come and warn Buck. If things continued to move along slowly, Buck would be dead before he knew he was in danger. He felt bad enough that he'd been unable to save Buck's father, but if Buck died the same way, he'd never be able to forgive himself.

"Is there a problem?" asked a familiar voice in the doorway, receiving a sigh of relief from Buck.

"The problem here is that he's going to die before he knows the truth about what happened to his dad, and that the same could happen to him," answered Chris angrily.

"Chris, rushing into telling our innocents the truth isn't the answer - I was doing a good job of gaining his trust before you decided to interfere," said Ezra angrily. He'd think up an explanation for Buck for why he'd said that to Chris later. He wasn't able to use his telepathy power to communicate with Chris inside his head, because none of Ezra's mind-powers worked on him.

"What? You're in this psycho-stuff together?" asked Buck in surprise. He thought Eddie was his friend. "I was starting to trust you, Eddie." He didn't believe Chris about non-human beings murdering his father and now it seemed like Eddie was involved with this deluded mad-man.

"Eddie?" asked Chris in amazement. "You didn't even tell HIM your real name?"

"We're leaving right now, Chris - before he gets angry and we find ourselves flying out that window and falling to our bloody deaths on the ground far below." Ezra grabbed Chris roughly and pushed the man toward the door.

"We have to save him though!" objected Chris, standing his ground and not caring how unbelievable the truth would seem to Buck. Ezra simply pushed Chris hard so he fell to the floor in the hall.

Buck watched the two men in amusement; he was starting to find the whole incident funny. Maybe this was how they welcomed new guys to the company.

"I'm really sorry, Buck. Chris is one of my older brothers and has mental problems which he's taking medication for. Unfortunately, he sometimes gets lax and doesn't bother to take his pills - I have to humor him in his delusions, I'm afraid," explained Ezra, formulating an explanation on the spot. "My name really is Eddie. I have to go now, so I'll see you tomorrow." Ezra would have to just take the blow from his new friend when Buck was told that he had lied about his name.

"Thanks for the explanation, Eddie. For a moment there, I thought you were both trying to scare me into quitting," said Buck with a smile. He believed Eddie's explanation - it was much more believable than what Chris had said.

"By way of an apology, I'd like to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night. Then you can see Chris after he's taken his medication - he's a decent guy then, I promise." Then Ezra planted acceptance of the invitation into Buck's head. Somehow, the brothers would tell Buck the truth that evening - they had to, before it was too late.

"I'd love to Eddie, but I've got a date then. How about Wednesday?"

Ezra cursed inside - his mind-control had worked on Buck earlier - why not now? He tried again on Buck. "Are you sure you can't come for dinner tomorrow night?"

Something weird was happening inside Buck's head - he could feel it. Why was Eddie being so persistent - didn't he want Buck to go on a date with a beautiful woman? Maybe he was...no, he couldn't be homosexual; Buck thought he could spot that type of man a mile away. "I guess I could cancel my date with Julie - she is a bit vain at times and I was having second thoughts about dating someone who's pretty but vain." Buck somehow felt he should say yes to the dinner invitation, although he'd rather say no.

"I'm sure you can find someone more worthy of your affections in time," said Ezra reassuringly, glad that the mind-control had finally worked on Buck - he didn't want to ruin Buck's lovelife though.

"I don't have trouble finding anyone; just that I don't know how often I'll have enough energy left after working here in the day - it's a very busy place." Now Ezra was trying to suggest that he - Buck Wilmington - couldn't get dates very easily!

"A regular Casanova aren't we?"

"You got it. You got any sisters?" asked Buck. It would be great if he got to his friend's house the following night and met a pretty sister.

"Sorry, only brothers. I'll see you tomorrow, I told my other brothers I'd go see a movie with them tonight and they'll be waiting for me," explained Ezra as he turned to leave the office.

"I look forward to meeting the rest of your family tomorrow night. I'll see you in the morning," said Buck, before Ezra left the office.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

While Ezra liked office work, his younger adopted brother Vin preferred dirtier work. His job during the week was being a mechanic at a local garage. He'd been working there ever since he'd graduated high school; he'd already learnt quite a lot by then from his adopted dad who'd also been a mechanic there. He'd had on-the-job training so he hadn't needed to go to college to learn further mechanics' skills.

"Vin? You nearly finished on that? It's gone five," said Vin's boss Mr. Simmonds, walking over to his employee who was looking inside the open hood of the car there.

"Yeah, I'll just make a note of the parts I need to order tomorrow," replied Vin, glad it was finally home-time - the day had dragged and he was getting tired. He wondered how Ezra had got on at his new job and if he'd spoken to Buck, the brothers' innocent they had to protect.

"Okay if I leave you to lock up?" asked Thomas Simmonds. "I'm already in the doghouse for being late all last week." His wife wasn't happy when he worked late and missed family meal-times.

"Sure, see you tomorrow, Tommy." Vin and Thomas had agreed on Vin's first day there to call each other by their first names. Thomas preferred to be called Tommy, so Vin had been calling him that all the time he'd been there.

Vin watched Tommy pick up his bag and car keys before going to his car parked outside the garage. Then the man unlocked the driver's door and was soon driving away, leaving Vin alone.

Vin closed the hood of the car he was working on, then went and locked the garage doors - the half-Whitelighter could orb out of the garage so didn't need to lock up from the outside. After that he went over to note down the parts he needed to order. Thankfully none of the parts needed would take long to arrive, so the customer would be happy about that and would hopefully use their garage again if he had any future problems.

Just as Vin finished his short list of required parts, Nathan orbed into the garage, making Vin jump. "Sorry Vin - I didn't mean to startle you. JD's in trouble outside his college and he's surrounded by lower-level demons." Lower-level demons were low-ranking demons who were very easy to kill, but could be dangerous if they had someone outnumbered. Nathan was very over-protective of all the brothers and hated the thought of any of them getting hurt. Of course if they did get hurt he could use his Whitelighter healing power to heal them, but he preferred to stop them getting hurt to start with.

"I promised Ez we'd go to the movies this evening - I hope this won't take long," complained Vin. Emergencies always happened when Vin had social plans. His social life since he had become a teenager had been almost non-existent because of all the demons that had disrupted it.

"Okay, we'll just leave your brother to get killed then, shall we?" snarled Nathan, irritated by Vin's bad prioritizing. They were meant to fight demons - they were witches and that's what witches did - even if it meant disrupting their lives in the process.

"No! I'm sorry, Nate. Let's go," urged Vin, feeling guilty as he took hold of Nathan's hand. Vin didn't want his younger brother to get killed - he could never live with himself if he allowed him to die. Although Vin's father had been a Whitelighter meaning Vin could orb, Nathan sometimes came by after work to orb home with Vin. The Whitelighter and half-Whitelighter both knew that evil supernatural beings could detect anyone with Whitelighter powers when they orbed and might come after them, intent on murder. Also, there was the danger of Darklighters: evil supernaturals with crossbows that fired poison arrows - those were deadly to Whitelighters. Although being orbed home by a Whitelighter should be seen as personal gain, it wasn't in Vin's case as it was for protection reasons.

Then the two men orbed to JD's college to rescue Vin's younger brother.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

"Leave me alone!" shouted JD, surrounded by demons with various colored skins and horns on their heads. They knew that JD was a witch, so had come after him, intent on reducing the amount of witches in the world. Witches protected the demons' victims as well as rescuing any captured ones and killing demons - all of this upset demons' work a lot.

A red and black demon threw a big sharp knife at JD, but the boy was ready for it and the knife froze in mid-air. Then he froze all the demons; but it wouldn't hold them for long. Freezing power wasn't always as effective on demons as it was on non-magical beings.

Nathan and Vin orbed in, then JD quickly squeezed through the demons and grabbed Vin's hand. Vin was JD's two-years-older half-brother since they shared the same deceased mother and JD always felt safer with him around. Then they orbed just before the demons unfroze to find that JD had gone.

**To be continued...**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The next morning Buck arrived at work in a cheerful mood. His mother had called him the night before, after he had cancelled that night's date. She knew that he'd started his new job that day and was interested to hear how it went. She had sounded happy and that warmed Buck's heart. She had been depressed a lot since Buck's father had died. Buck told her about his new friend Eddie and about the house the man shared with his brothers. His mom sounded fascinated by his description of the house. The last thing that cropped up in their conversation was that she might be able to visit her son that month. At present she was busily settling into the apartment she had moved into with her present boyfriend. Buck was very protective of his mother and hoped that the guy would treat her right - otherwise he would be down there straight away. He hadn't met the guy before because his mother had met him after she'd moved to that state

"Good Morning, Buck. You look happy," commented Ezra as he looked in the open door of Mr. Anderson's office at a seated and smiling, lost in thought, Buck. He saw that Buck was sat down at his desk holding an open packet of potato chips - perhaps the guy didn't always eat as healthily as he'd assumed the previous day.

Buck smiled and invited him into the office. His boss had called and said he'd be late in - he had a few things to take care of first. Buck was glad of that - he'd have some peace and quiet before his boss came in and began his constant chatter.

Ezra walked into the office, noticing that it was very tidy. He didn't think Anderson would've tidied it as being tidy wasn't something bosses were usually known for, so Buck must've done it. Ezra sat down on one of the cushioned, metal-framed seats put there for visitors.

"My mom called me last night and said she might be able to visit soon; I haven't seen her since she moved away after Dad died," explained Buck. Then he popped a chip into his mouth. He wasn't used to getting up early for work and had forgotten to set his alarm. He'd got up late and hadn't had time for breakfast at home, so he'd just grabbed a bag of chips from a kitchen cupboard before he left for work.

"My mother left me a long time ago when she just disappeared into thin air, and I haven't heard from her since," said Ezra with sadness in his voice - at least Buck's mom talked to her son. He hoped Buck realized how lucky he was.

"I'm real sorry, Eddie - I didn't mean to brag," said Buck, feeling guilty. It must be bad to not know where or how your mother was. He hoped that Eddie's mom would get in touch with her son soon. He wondered if he had taken having a mom for granted. He always made sure he made the most of phone calls and visits with her (not that there'd been any visits yet) - he could lose her anytime and didn't want to feel guilty after she'd died for not paying enough attention to her. Unfortunately, every time since she'd moved that he'd mentioned visiting, she had rapidly changed the subject. It was as though she didn't want to see him, but Buck was sure that wasn't true.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

At the police station where Josiah worked as a homicide detective, Chris and Josiah were talking about Buck's father's death and how they could work out which demon was responsible for the murder.

"Are there any leads on Wilmington Senior's death?" asked Chris. The case was officially closed, but Josiah was still working on it whenever he got some spare time, looking for anything that might help the brothers find out exactly what demon had killed Buck's father.

"No - another unexplained mystery it seems," answered Josiah. "Did you find anything in The Book that might help us?"

The Book was a very thick magical book that contained spells and recipes for magic potions, as well as information on all sorts of magical beings - both good and evil ones. It had been in the Potter family for hundreds of years and each generation had added to it. Every magical family had their own magical book, each one being different depending on what knowledge the generations of their family gained and put into it. Demons and other evil beings were often trying to steal witch's books, as that would take away the centuries of magical knowledge that the witches had easy access to - you couldn't just go to a library and find a magic book. Then, without their book, witches would find it hard to find out how to vanquish a particular enemy, as each one could only be killed a certain way, and that information was usually in the book.

"There are a lot of demons that murder innocents - we don't have anything to identify what particular demon it is. JD's thinking of writing another spell to try and help." Chris hated the thought of what JD's next spell would say - the one to help him find Buck hadn't worked - probably because of the awful rhyming in it. Then again, Chris doubted he could've written a better one, although he could try writing one that didn't rhyme - spells didn't have to have rhyming words in them.

"I'm sorry there's no useful evidence from the crime-scene - why don't you go there again and try touching everything again to see if you can get a premonition?" suggested Josiah. His younger brother, Chris, could get premonitions of past and future evil events from anything if the evil or innocents involved had been near or touched what Chris touched. In the case of getting future premonitions, Chris would get those visions if he touched someone or something that would eventually be involved in an evil incident. He could also get premonitions from anyone related to the innocent they were meant to save.

The police had found the body of Buck's father on the ground at the law firm's private campsite, but no evidence had been left. Chris had been there soon after the attack, seeing if touching the ground would give him a premonition of the demon responsible, but he hadn't seen anything when he'd touched everywhere within the crime-scene.

"Okay, I'll go there now and I'll be right back if I find anything," promised Chris. It was his day off work that day, so he had the day to himself. The brothers had a housekeeper who went to the house during the day to keep it clean for them. Of course she had known the boys' adoptive parents and knew about magic. They needed to be able to trust anyone whom they left alone in the house - otherwise the person could betray them either by reporting their magic secrets to the media, or if they were evil supernaturals, they might try to steal The Book.

"Are you going to drive there?" asked Josiah, not sounding like he approved of that idea. The campsite was a long way from the police station and it would take ages to go there, then come back. Chris wasn't even half-Whitelighter so wouldn't be able to orb directly there like Vin would be able to do.

"How many family emergencies has Vin had this month already?" asked Chris fiercely - it was clear Josiah wanted Chris to get a lift from someone they knew who could orb, but he couldn't pull Vin from work again. The brothers sometimes called Vin out of work to orb them places if for some reason Nathan couldn't. Chris had the car parked outside, happy to make the long drive to the campsite.

"I wasn't suggesting you use Vin. What's wrong with Nathan? At least he hasn't got a job we have to pull him away from." Even if Nathan had other charges to look after as well, he was still more readily accessible than Vin.

"You know me and Nathan don't always get along; I don't really want to go to the campsite with him," explained Chris, starting to feel a headache coming on in anticipation of Nathan's criticisms and offers of advice once they reached their destination.

"You're running out of travel options, Brother," said Josiah in a gruff tone, not looking happy. He got along fine with Nathan and didn't understand why Chris didn't get on so well with their easily likeable Whitelighter. "I don't want you to go in your car - it'll take too long to go there and get back here before tonight's dinner - and I don't want anyone to be late for that if they can help it, because Buck's coming over for dinner."

"How about Ezra? Blinking's slightly quicker than orbing anyway," suggested Chris, hoping that he could get Ezra to help instead. Even though he didn't always understand what Ezra said, they at least got on most of the time.

"You can't take Ezra out of work on only his second day there. Besides, he has to watch Buck in case his father's killer tries to get to him today. He could attack at any time." Josiah looked at the papers on his desk as if looking for an answer there.

"I suppose I could go with Nathan - but if he starts annoying me, I'll be straight back whether I have something or not."

"I forgot to tell Nathan that Buck's coming for dinner - he needs to be there as our brother, so please can you tell him for me. Ezra told Buck he had five brothers (including our Whitelighter); as soon as Buck knows the truth about us, we can explain who Nathan really is," said Josiah, a bit calmer now. He was happier now that he'd persuaded Chris not to use the slow option to get to the campsite. If they weren't having guests for dinner, Josiah didn't mind his brothers being a little late for it - but if they were expecting someone, then he felt it good manners to have all the brothers there on time.

"Okay, I'll let Nathan know. I'll see you later," said Chris, preparing to leave. "NATHAN!" called Chris. Whitelighters could hear the calls of their charges, so would come to them as long as they weren't doing something more important.

Blue and white orbs appeared and in their midst appeared Nathan. Then the orbs vanished, leaving Nathan standing there. "Hi," he greeted, happy as usual - he was barely unhappy unless there was a very good reason to be.

"You called?" asked the Whitelighter - he knew Chris was at Josiah's work because Josiah, the detective, was unofficially investigating the murder of their last innocent, and they must be discussing that. He wanted Mr. Wilmington's murderer to be found and vanquished (when demons were defeated the word "vanquished" was used more often than "defeated") before he could kill again. It looked like Buck would be the next victim unless they could vanquish the demon responsible first.

"Nathan, I need to go back to the scene of Mr. Wilmington's murder. I need to get a premonition to help us find out what type of evil was responsible. Then we'll be able to find out how to vanquish him before he can hurt Buck," explained Chris to Nathan as he walked over to the man and put his hand on the Whitelighter's shoulder. For a Whitelighter to orb with someone, the other person had to be touching him before he orbed.

"Didn't you already try that?" asked Nathan, trying to save Chris from disappointment when he didn't get a premonition on his second visit. "I can't see you getting one this time if you didn't last time."

"I have to try again - before Buck gets hurt."

Nathan could sense the urgency in Chris's voice. He knew that Chris would fall apart if another innocent he was meant to protect was killed. Chris was still wracked with guilt after his wife and son had been killed about a year ago. Chris had been away at the time and felt responsible for not being there to protect them from the warlock's attack.

"See you later, Josiah," said Nathan, as he orbed Chris and himself away.

Josiah looked down at the reports about the campsite murder, and some other murders that were probably connected to it, on his desk; the cause of death for them all would have to remain unknown, as normal people would find the real cause unbelievable. To the mortal unmagical world, demons and Warlocks were merely make-believe. With murders and kidnappings carried out by magical beings, the cases would be unexplained to cover up the fairytale-like explanations. A normal policeman would probably sell magic-related reports to the press, but with Josiah working there he was already in the know and could be trusted to keep magical incidents a secret from the non-magical world.

**To be continued...**


	6. Chapter 5

**Warning: Death of an OFC in this chapter.**

**Chapter 5**

Chris and Nathan orbed to the campsite, not far from where Mr. Wilmington Senior had been killed. The two men walked over to the spot where the murder had taken place. It just looked like a bare patch of ground now, since it was no longer cordoned off as the police had finished looking for evidence there. Chris knelt on the ground and put his hands on it, hoping it would give him a premonition.

"Anything?" asked Nathan impatiently. He was unable to help much as all Whitelighters had the same powers and those didn't include the ability to receive premonitions. He knew that premonitions came on very quickly and didn't always last very long, so Chris could've already received a short one without Nathan knowing.

"No, not yet; why don't you see if you can find any evidence that might've been missed?" suggested Chris. He didn't want help while he was trying to get a premonition, so would prefer if Nathan left him alone for a while.

Nathan started walking around, examining the ground for any evidence that might still be there. He knew that Chris had only given him the job to get him off his back.

"Nathan?" asked a mature female voice, startling the man.

Nathan turned to face the voice, as it had come from behind him. "Gloria? What are you doing here?" he asked the solid ghost of Mrs. Potter, five of his charges' adoptive mother, who stood there. Ghosts could choose to take on a solid appearance in front of anyone who believed in them. Relatives of the deceased - whether they believed in ghosts or not - could always see them when the ghosts came to visit solid or otherwise.

"I have been sent because the Elders have more information for you," answered the woman, who looked slightly nervous because of what she was leading up to telling them.

"Mom?" asked Chris in disbelief, as he stood a short distance away, looking at the ghost of his adoptive mother. He had been living with Gloria and Terrence since he had been rescued at age two, so the Potters were like real parents to him by the time they died. He had been distressed by their deaths and it had changed him forever. Terrence had visited before, but Gloria had never come to visit them as a ghost and he had never expected to see her again.

"Hello Chris, I'm not here for long, I'm afraid. Please listen carefully because this information from the Elders is critical," said Gloria, keeping all emotion out of her voice. "Buck's father was a witch, meaning that Buck has magical powers as well. He doesn't know yet though - his non-magical mother got his father to bind them when Buck was just a toddler. Now that Buck's father is dead, his son's powers will automatically become unbound when his mother dies. The demon stole Buck's father's powers when he killed him and he wants to get Buck's as well. We think that's why Buck's mom moved - to hide from the demons so they can't kill her and unbind her son's powers. As long as she's alive, Buck can't get his powers automatically, and no demons have any reason to touch him until they can sense he has his powers."

"He's not in danger then?" asked Chris with relief in his voice. They would just have to protect Mrs. Wilmington instead.

"Not unless they find his mother and kill her. The Elders think the demon doesn't know that Buck's powers would be unbound if his mother was killed, otherwise it would have already found and killed her. Now his father is dead though, there is no other way to unbind Buck's powers - only the father could do it manually. Unless his mother dies before the demons find out how to unbind Buck's powers, Buck won't be able to learn to control his powers in time to protect himself and avenge his father's death. Also, if Buck had his powers it would lure the demon to him, then it could be vanquished. Only a magical relative of one of his victims can kill the demon."

Chris sighed - this was very bad. Neither he nor his brothers could vanquish this demon unless it killed one of the others first. So only Buck or another magical relative of the late Mr. Wilmington could vanquish the demon - and Buck couldn't do it without first having his magic powers being unbound. Chris remembered when they'd found information about Buck in the government records - there hadn't been many Wilmingtons listed, as Buck's father and Buck were both only-children. Any other Wilmingtons might not be magical, so Buck would likely be their only hope to kill this demon.

"Wasn't there a 'Plan B' in case Buck's father died without unbinding his powers?" asked Nathan. It didn't make sense for there not to be another way for Buck to become a witch like he was destined to be. "Killing his mother to unbind his powers isn't viable."

"No, they didn't think they'd need one obviously," answered Gloria. She was upset that there was no other way for the son to get his powers. It would be very upsetting for Buck if his mom died just so he could have his powers. "I'm afraid it is Mrs. Wilmington's fate to die to help her son - the power-binding spell has to be very powerful so that the powers won't be unbound for the wrong reasons - so not even the oh-so-powerful Elders can unbind Buck's powers."

"What if we could find a relative of another of the demon's victims? One who IS a powerful witch," suggested Chris - although he didn't know how they would find another victim, as there was unlikely to be any evidence for any related murders either. If he was able to touch something relating to other victims of the same demon he could get a past premonition and hopefully be able to see enough to ID a victim and work out their relatives from there.

"People are given powers for a reason - so they can use them to protect the world from evil. It is Buck's destiny to gain his powers for that reason. The Elders cannot find another way to help Buck unbind his powers, so his mother must die for the cause." Gloria disappeared before her son or the Whitelighter could argue - it would make her feel even guiltier after she'd done what had to be done if she talked about it more.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

Bianca Wilmington studied her face in the mirror - the wrinkles weren't on a lot of women her age. Due to worrying when her late-husband constantly had to deal with dangerous magical beings, getting early wrinkles had been her fate. Then she picked up a comb and started combing her long and silky, medium-brown hair.

She was startled when a woman with short dark hair, which was slightly greying, suddenly appeared behind her - although she was used to that kind of thing happening by now. "What do you want?" she asked in a shaky voice. She had thought she'd escaped from magic by moving away from her family's home.

"I need to help your son - unfortunately, there is only one way remaining for him to get back his powers he needs to become a witch," answered Gloria Potter.

"I refuse to help Buck become a witch - it's too dangerous. My husband died because of what he did and I won't have my son suffering the same fate." Bianca was angry - she didn't want her son to become a witch, but now some strange woman wanted Buck to get his magic powers.

"My name is Gloria Potter and my sons are powerful male witches. They will help him start along the road to his destiny; there is great strength in numbers," reassured Gloria with unwavering confidence in her voice. "He has to have his powers so that he can vanquish the demon that killed his father - before it kills more witches and takes their powers like it took his father's. When the demon finds out that he can unbind your son's powers by killing you, he will come after you, and without a doubt, succeed in his mission. Then he will go straight to Buck and kill him, before your son has a chance to learn how to use his powers. If Buck can become experienced with his powers before the demon goes after him, he has a chance of vanquishing it."

Bianca put the comb down on her dressing table and turned to face Gloria. Buck's mother wore a scared expression on her face. "I have to die either way don't I? That's why you're here - to protect Buck and give him his powers. You have to kill me now, don't you?" Bianca's voice was very shaky, showing how scared she really was - she was terrified of death, but she knew it would happen sooner or later.

"I'm sorry, Bianca - but you must know that it is for the power of good and you will go to Heaven for your selflessness. There is no alternative solution. Your death will be quick and painless, I promise." Gloria's voice remained gentle throughout - preparing someone for death was something one needed to do gently; not that she'd ever done it before. In most cases, the Elders wouldn't even consider killing a good person, but if it was to protect many others and there was no other solution, then it was allowed.

"I'm ready." Bianca stood as confidently as she could manage, waiting for the inevitable - she wanted to help her son, and if it meant dying for him, then she would do it. She loved Buck a lot and couldn't bear for him to die - especially not if she could die to save him. She believed in Heaven and was sure they'd let her watch Buck from there.

Gloria raised her hands. A small flash of bright, white light struck Bianca from above and the woman fell to the ground, dead before she even impacted with it. It all happened too quickly for Bianca to feel any pain. At least Bianca would be able to see her much-missed husband again, thought Gloria.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

Buck's morning was busy; as Mr. Anderson gave him more work as soon as each task was completed. Lunch-time soon came and Buck felt a strong desire to phone his mom, who didn't work daylight hours at her factory job.

Bianca's bedroom phone kept ringing; the woman dead on that room's floor. No-one was in the house so no-one heard the phone ring or knew that Bianca was dead.

Buck replaced the phone's handset in the cradle, disappointed that his mom wasn't at home - he'd have to try again later.

Ezra came into the office rattling his car-keys, ready to take Buck to a local cafe for lunch. It wasn't usually somewhere the stylish half-demon would want to eat, but while he was being the working-class 'Eddie', it was in character for him to eat there.

"Eddie? Can you try and remind me to call Mom later?" requested Buck. "She was out just now and I really want to find out if she knows when she can visit yet."

"Of course, Buck. I hope she can visit you soon. It is important to see your family whenever you can because you never know how much time you or they have left in this world," said Ezra. He was well aware of people's mortality and if he was in contact with his own mother he would make sure he saw or spoke to her a lot. He kept in constant contact with his brothers, trying to phone them from work at least once a day. After the Potters had died, Ezra had felt guilty for not being more appreciative of his adoptive parents' efforts to bring him up, so had tried to make up for it by showing how much he appreciated his adopted brothers being there for him. 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone,' was indeed accurate, Ezra had learned the hard way.

"I guess you're right. Let's get going." Buck guessed that his friend realized the importance of having people who loved you. Maybe Eddie still clung to the hope that he'd see his mother again.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

After Gloria had left them, Chris and Nathan decided to go back to Josiah with the information the ghost had given them about the demon witch-killer. The two men orbed to the alleyway near the station house and went to Josiah's office to see the detective. They knew he had a lot of office work to do that day, so could be certain of finding him there or not too faraway.

"Do you have any further information?" asked Josiah after he answered the knock at his office door and saw his blond brother as well as the brothers' Whitelighter standing there.

"A lot of information, and it's not all good news. Buck's dad was a witch, and Buck's mom has to be killed for him to get his powers unbound. The Elders are insistent that Buck gets his powers, and although she didn't admit it, we're pretty sure they sent Gloria to do the job for them," said Chris in an angry voice, barely pausing between words. He was upset that an innocent's life had to be taken to save others and wished it didn't have to be that way.

"I think I understood that - but you need to calm down, Chris. Everything is done for the power of good. The Elders from high-above only do things to protect innocents and you know the death of one innocent is worthwhile if it protects many more innocent lives," explained Josiah - he had experienced a lot in all the years he had lived with the Potters. He had gathered a lot of magical knowledge in all that time as well.

"I hope if Mrs. Wilmington does die, Buck will be with us when he finds out - he'll go crazy if he finds that news out and he's alone," said Chris, still annoyed about the Elders' decision. "He might accidentally use his powers once they become unbound and we don't know how he'll react - it could be dangerous."

"How about we invite him to stay over tonight if he hasn't heard anything of his mother before then?" suggested Josiah. They couldn't assume that Mrs. Wilmington was even dead yet - hopefully the Elders were trying to think of an alternative solution so they wouldn't need to take her life.

"Good idea, hopefully soon we'll be able to tell him everything, including that he's a witch."

"Things seemed to be going so well for him. Now his mother might be killed soon and he's going to be told he's a witch who has to protect people and fight demons," said Chris feeling sorry for Buck - the man's world could be torn apart very soon.

"He'll manage - he'll have us to help him, seeing as there's no-one else left around here for him. We know he doesn't have any family very close by, so he'll need us to support him when he gets his powers," said Josiah - it always helped to be able to look into an innocent's records and find out whatever you could about them.

**To be continued...**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

After work, Buck drove home to change clothes before he went to Eddie's house for dinner. He had already checked the route from his house to Eddie's so he wouldn't get lost and arrive late. His friend's house was in a part of town Buck had never been to before he'd met his new friend. It wouldn't make a good impression if he arrived late, and he wanted to make a good first impression on Eddie's brothers.

That was when IT happened. It started after Buck tried to phone his mother again, but there was no answer. Buck was worried that maybe something bad had happened to her. If her boyfriend had harmed her, he would make sure he got locked away for life. As he was thinking this, he was looking out the window at a bird (he couldn't identify what type it was) flying in the sky; what an easy life birds had - they could fly anywhere they pleased without having to pay for fuel or any other expenses. Life was a lot simpler for birds.

Then Buck felt himself moving fast toward the ground, as though he were shrinking. Then his arms started shrinking and changing shape. When his arms stopped changing, they started growing feathers. Buck gasped - what on earth was happening to him? He closed his eyes, hoping everything would get back to normal while he couldn't see what was happening. But when he did re-open them everything seemed a lot bigger - certainly not normal as he had hoped. "What the ?" he tried to say but all that came out was a noise that sounded like a bird's whistle. He looked at his arms - they were now brown wings; he realized that either he was dreaming or he had really become a bird. Buck flapped his wings and was flying, so he flew to the mirror and studied his reflection - he was definitely a bird, but this must be a weird dream. He wondered when he had fallen asleep - he hadn't felt tired. He wished he could wake up so everything was back to normal; and he could go to dinner at his friend's house.

Then, in an instant, he was back to being human. "I better wake up now or I'll be late." Buck tried to open his eyes properly, but they were already open. He pinched himself - he had to be dreaming. Buck started to panic - he couldn't wake up; and, just when things couldn't get any worse, his mother suddenly appeared in the room in a flash of yellow light.

"Mom? H-how did you get here?" asked Buck in shock. The man was shaking; weird things were going on which he couldn't explain.

"I came to tell you that I had to die to unbind your magic powers, so that you can track down and kill your father's murderer - before he kills more witches to steal their powers. I can't explain things very well - someone else will help you come to terms with the changes in your life from now on. I was allowed to come back as a ghost to say a final good-bye before I go to Heaven. Good-bye, Buck - I'll miss you." Bianca started to cry.

Buck found himself unable to speak - he couldn't comprehend a word of what the illusion that looked like his mom had said. He must still be dreaming - would this nightmare never end?

"Buck - magic really does exist in this world but it is hidden from humans," explained his mother through her tears - since her son was having trouble coming to terms with everything. "Your father had magical powers and, as his son, you inherited powers from his family line. Your particular powers are the same that your great-grandfather had and you will learn to control them in time. Use them to protect the people of this world from evil beings, Son. I must go now. Remember, I will always love you. Good-bye." After finishing talking, Buck's mother started to turn increasingly transparent until she had completely disappeared, leaving her son alone to come to terms with what she had told him - her exit was completely different from the way she'd entered the room.

Buck stared at where his mother had stood, shocked by what he'd just been told. He was finding things hard to believe, but maybe this was all real after all.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

At the Potter house, Ezra had just driven home and walked in the front door, and had been greeted by a sombre Chris and Josiah. He wasn't usually greeted by both of them - so he knew something must be up. He followed the two men into the lounge to hear what they had to tell him.

"Son, we need to tell you of what we have learned today," started Josiah, putting his arm supportively on the younger man's shoulder. He had the feeling that being told that Buck's mom was probably going to die by the hands of good would disturb the younger brother.

"Ezra, we've found out that Mr. Wilmington Senior was killed because he was a witch and the demon that killed him did it to steal his powers," blurted out Chris, not wanting to slowly ease Ezra into the startling truth.

Ezra's mouth opened in shock, he had thought that Buck's father was an innocent human without any magic, so hearing that he had actually been a witch was a big shock to him. "Are you certain that your information is from a reliable source?" Maybe they were mistaken - Buck didn't look like he had been fathered by a magical being.

"The information came from our mother. Chris and Nathan were visited by her ghost when they were re-examining the murder scene at the campsite," answered Josiah. He realized that his younger brother had obviously not had any suspicions about why Wilmington Senior in particular had been targeted out of the whole group on the law-firm's camping trip. Josiah wondered why they'd never thought about why Wilmington Senior had been targeted - they might've learnt the truth sooner if they'd thought about it more.

"That would make Buck a...a..." stuttered Ezra in disbelief. He thought that he couldn't use his mind-control power on magical beings - especially not witches. Ezra walked over to a recliner and sunk down into it - he couldn't stand steady, listening to all these shocking revelations about his seemingly normal friend.

"A witch," said Chris, looking into Ezra's sparkling green-eyes - they always sparkled when the man was overcome with emotion. "Buck isn't a witch until he gets his powers though. If his mom dies, Buck will get his powers unbound and then the demon will be interested in him. The demon can only be vanquished by a magical relative of one of his victims. So Buck HAS to get his powers to vanquish him; but the only way for him to get his powers..."

Ezra interrupted, realizing what Chris was about to say, "...is for his mother to die. When his powers were bound, the only methods for them to become available for him were either if his father manually unbound them or his non-magical mother became deceased. Of course if a person is given magical powers they are destined to have them sooner or later and cannot deny their true destiny. So Buck must have his powers and if necessary, sooner rather than later."

"Well put, Son," complimented Josiah. The thing he most liked about Ezra, was how clever he was, often working out things faster than any of them could. The other brothers didn't give the young man enough credit.

"If his mother is already deceased it would rationalize why she wasn't reachable by her son earlier today," said Ezra. Without any explanation, Ezra stood up from his chair and rushed over to the wall-phone. He picked it up and started dialling.

"Who are you phoning?" demanded Chris, annoyed that Ezra had finished their conversation prematurely without an explanation.

Ezra ignored his older brother and waited for someone to answer on the number he had dialled. Finally a man's voice answered and Ezra spoke; "Hi Buck, is everything all right?"

"Eddie, he was right," came the shaky reply, partly answering Ezra's question - because Buck certainly didn't sound all right.

Ezra frowned in confusion. "Who was right and about what?"

"My mom's dead and your blond brother warned me that someone was going to kill a woman with long, brown hair related to me," explained Buck, trying to keep himself from crying at the loss of his mother.

"Chris?" asked Ezra, turning to face his brother. "You were in receipt of a premonition when you confronted Buck at the office and you failed to disclose it?"

"Oh, yeah - I forgot about that," said Chris, sounding embarrassed that he had forgotten to tell Ezra - he had meant to tell him the previous night, but he'd completely forgotten.

"Brother, failing to share your premonitions with us is dangerous; this time she was meant to die, but next time it could be someone we're supposed to protect," said Josiah sternly.

Ezra turned back to the phone, "Buck, are you still there?"

"Yes, just about," came the weak reply. "Something weird happened. I wouldn't just tell anyone about it, but I get the idea it's okay to tell you - I changed."

"Changed?" asked Ezra puzzled. "How did you change exactly?"

"I changed shape - into a bird."

"Oh. You HAVE received your powers then." Ezra realized that Buck's revelation verified that Mrs. Wilmington was really dead.

"That's not all though. My mom visited me as a ghost and told me that dad had magic powers and I do too. I can't believe it of course - it's like I'm in a nightmare and I can't wake up," said Buck, trying not to believe it.

"Stay where you are; I'll come and get you. It is best that you come here, and we will help you come to terms with your true destiny, now it has been revealed."

"What's going on?" asked JD curiously, as he walked into the room through the open door.

"I'll see you soon, Buck," said Ezra, finishing the call. Then he turned to JD.

"Is Buck okay?" asked JD, who'd been listening to Ezra's side of the phone-call from the stairs. It didn't make sense for Buck to be talking to Ezra on the phone when he was visiting them that evening, so something must be wrong.

"Has Master Dunne been notified of your acquired knowledge of the Wilmington heritage?" asked Ezra - it was bad enough that they hadn't explained about the Wilmington family to him until he arrived home. It might've made things better for Buck if Ezra had been aware of things earlier in the day.

"You mean that his father was a witch, and he's just received his powers because his mom's been killed, thus unbinding them for him?" asked JD with a smug smile.

"You already knew all that, Kid?" asked Chris in astonishment. JD wasn't psychic as far as he was aware.

"I did some research on the internet and made a few phone calls. I found out enough info. to piece things together," said JD with modesty, as usual showing off to the brothers how clever he was at working things out on his own.

"You could've told us." It was just like the kid to keep what he'd found out a secret until after they found things out the hard way.

"It could've made things more dangerous if I told you. Demons could've heard us talking, then they could've gone and killed his mom, then got him too. I had to keep it all a secret to protect him." It was hard to believe that he had been able to hack into top secret FBI records and find out enough to work out that the Wilmingtons were really witches.

"Ezra, I want you and Chris to blink to Buck's house and bring him straight back here; JD, you look in The Book for a demon that kills witches to steal their powers and find out how we can vanquish him. And I'll fill Nathan and Vin in on everything," said Josiah taking charge. As the oldest brother, he felt it was his job to organize things when there were innocents to protect and evil supernaturals to vanquish.

"There are a lot of demons who kill witches for that reason though," argued JD. "But if I can just write a spell..."

"Please be careful - I don't want you turning into a bug or something worse this time."

"I'll be extra careful - that was only because of the spell's wording."

Ezra cleared his throat loudly, to attract their attention. "I am perfectly capable of transporting to Mr. Wilmington's abode and retrieving him unaccompanied, Josiah," he said, not wishing to take a chaperone with him every time he blinked to somewhere.

"Ezra, if the demon is already there or appears after you get there, it will be safer if there are two capable witches against one capable demon," explained Josiah, angry at Ezra's defiance. He knew that the young man didn't like taking orders from anyone, but he had to co-operate otherwise someone could get hurt.

Ezra grabbed Chris's arm roughly, showing how annoyed he was at having to blink to Buck's house with his brother - HE could take care of himself if any demons tried to attack HIM.

"Brother, be gentle - I don't want you to cause harm to anyone you shouldn't because of your temper," commanded Josiah loudly; Ezra was really annoying him and it certainly wasn't a good time for that - they had work to do.

Ezra didn't answer Josiah; he just blinked out, taking Chris with him.

Josiah noticed that the youngest brother was still standing in the room, and had been watching Ezra and Chris before they left. "JD? There's no time to lose - we have to vanquish this demon before he has time to kill anyone else," instructed the oldest brother, trying to emphasize to the youngest how urgently they needed to get things sorted out.

"I'm sorry, Josiah. I'll go right now," apologized JD, before he walked out of the room towards the upstairs room where The Book was kept.

Josiah sighed 'Brothers - can't live with them, can't live without them.' he said to himself, before he walked to their garage where Vin and Nathan were talking while Vin was fixing up the motorcycle he'd recently bought for himself.

"Guys, I need to update you on our progress with Buck Wilmington," he started, then told them about the phone conversation Ezra just had with Buck and the plans for vanquishing the demon. Nathan had already told Vin about what Buck really was, so the two men only needed filling in on what further things had transpired since Ezra had arrived home from work.

**To be continued...**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Buck put the phone down. "Eddie's on his way," he said to himself, wiping the sweat from his face with the handkerchief from his pocket. "Maybe he can wake me from this horrible dream before anything else happens."

He walked over to the mirror and gazed at his reflection. His skin was quite pale from all the shocks he'd received recently – first he'd changed into a bird, then he'd been visited by the ghost of his mother, who was now apparently dead. Buck wondered how long he'd have to wait until Eddie got there. It was still rush-hour and that wouldn't make it easy for his friend to drive there from across town.

"Buck, are you okay?" asked Ezra as he appeared behind Buck, making the man jump. Chris stood beside him with his hand resting on his brother's shoulder.

"How did you two get here?" asked Buck as he turned around, startled by the men's sudden appearance in the room.

"How specific would you like me to be about that?" asked Ezra, ready to explain in great detail about blinking.

"I was expecting you to drive here!" exclaimed Buck, still not believing what had just happened. It wasn't possible for people to just appear out of thin-air.

"That is one of the advantages of having magical powers. I can move around in the blink of an eye. My particular method of transportation is inherited from my demonic father and is called 'Blinking' because it happens in the blink of an eye; I find it very useful if I wish to avoid traffic jams." Ezra smiled, remembering how surprised one of his previous employers had looked when he got to work on time, despite all the local roads being jammed with traffic.

"Demonic?" Had Eddie just said his father was demonic, or was Buck hearing things?

"You shouldn't have mentioned that part," muttered Chris, just loud enough for his brother to hear. He received a look from Ezra that seemed to communicate that Ezra knew exactly what he had said and didn't think he'd said the wrong thing.

Ezra turned back to Buck. "It is time to embrace your true destiny," informed Ezra, preparing Buck for the future.

"My true destiny? What are you on about?" asked Buck, clearly puzzled and surprised by the other man's words. "This is all just some weird nightmare and in a minute I'll wake up and find out my mom's not really dead and I didn't really change into a bird." Buck looked pale as he unsteadily walked to the nearest armchair and slumped down in it. This was the scariest nightmare that Buck had ever experienced.

"This could be harder than we thought," whispered Ezra to Chris. That Buck couldn't accept the reality of the situation would complicate things.

"This is all because his parents bound his powers when he was still a kid. If he'd learned the truth when he was a kid, he would be more open to magic now," replied Chris, not bothering to whisper so only Ezra would hear him.

"What? My parents?" asked Buck. What could they possibly know about his parents? "What have my parents got to do with this?"

"Your father was a witch..." started Chris, but was cut off by Buck.

"My mom said that dad had magic powers when she visited me as a ghost," said Buck - he might as well try to go along with it until the very real-seeming dream ended.

Chris stepped forward - this wasn't getting them anywhere. "BUCK, LISTEN TO ME. YOU ARE NOT DREAMING. MAGIC IS REAL AND THIS IS ALL REAL," he shouted at the man, saying each word slowly so the man would understand.

Buck took a step back; hurt by the shouting. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. Can you 'Blink' me back to your house? Maybe that will help me believe all this crazy talk."

"Mr. Larabee, your little outburst was un-called for. Buck will start believing us in time, but shouting is not the answer," scolded Ezra. He was almost considering throwing a fireball at Chris and burning the annoying witch, but Josiah would be very angry if Ezra started using his demonic powers on his brothers. Ezra was scared of Josiah when he was angry, so didn't wish to be the cause of the oldest brother losing his temper.

"Your gentle, slow approach is even less effective," argued Chris loudly. He wished he hadn't come along with the short half-demon; he had far better things he could be doing right now.

"Hi? Remember me?" asked Buck, standing up and walking over to the men, then gesturing at himself with his hands. He wanted to get this over and done with, in the hope that his mother wasn't really dead and this had all been a bad dream.

"I'm sorry, Buck. Just a little brotherly row. Let us now travel to my family residence - my other brothers are all anxious to make your acquaintance," said Ezra, glaring at Chris as he spoke.

"It's a good job blinking is so fast, or I'd have to put up with you for longer while we did it," said Chris, still annoyed about being scolded by his younger brother. Ezra was really getting on his nerves that week.

"That is why it is called 'Blinking', Mr. Larabee," answered back Ezra, not wanting to call him by his first name while they weren't getting along.

"How does it work?" asked Buck, not sure if he had to do anything so it would work for him.

"Just put your hand on Ezra and keep it there and he'll blink us home," said Chris, calming down a little after realising that they had to put their fighting aside and help their innocent. Even magical beings and witches like Buck needed protecting from evil sometimes, as they could be just as defenceless as un-magical innocents at times.

Buck put his hand on Ezra's arm, not wanting to hold hands with a man - if Ezra had been a woman Buck wouldn't have minded holding her hand.

Chris put his hand on Ezra's shoulder on the other side and Ezra concentrated on where he wanted to go. Then they blinked out of the room.

**CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7**

Back at the Potter house, Josiah and JD were waiting for Ezra and Chris to return with Buck - it seemed to be taking longer than they'd expected.

"Why aren't they back yet? I thought blinking was meant to be fast," complained JD impatiently.

"Perhaps Buck wasn't very willing to co-operate," suggested Josiah, who knew how awkward innocents could be if they had to believe in magical things all of a sudden. "Have you found anything out about the demon?"

"Some since Mom gave us some clues on which one it is. I've found a vanquishing spell and the ingredients for the vanquishing potion. Someone has to say the spell while they throw the potion at him. It has to be a relative of someone he has killed though."

"So Buck has to say the vanquishing spell to defeat him?"

"Yes, but he has to be the one to throw the potion at him too," confirmed JD. "I also read that he's quite a high-up demon in their hierarchy and well-respected by lower-level demons. They'll be real mad at whoever kills him, so it won't be long until they start wanting revenge."

"We'll deal with the repercussions later. Let's concentrate on vanquishing this demon first, Brother," said Josiah, who wasn't scared of any demons and would be happy to vanquish any who came looking for revenge after their demon-brother was vanquished. "Once Buck's here, the demon will soon arrive after sensing him. We need to tell our friend how to vanquish the demon almost as soon as he arrives. Just make sure you can have the potion and spell ready for Buck when he needs them."

"I've already got Vin working on the potion and I've got the spell printed out for Buck right here," said JD, handing his oldest brother a sheet of paper with computer type on it.

"Why is the second half of this in Latin, brother?" asked Josiah in surprise. He hoped that Buck wouldn't have to try and pronounce all those Latin words correctly. It wasn't an easy language for the uninitiated to speak in.

"That was how it was written in The Book, so I guess Buck has to say it like that," replied JD, who hadn't a clue what the Latin words meant.

"Can't ya translate them inta English? Surely the spell would still work?" asked Vin, as he strolled casually into the room as though fighting demons was as normal as watching TV. He carried a small glass bottle with a dark purple liquid inside.

"Buck will just have to try his best with the Latin - we can't risk it not working by saying it different from how The Book says, Vin," said JD, eyeing the bottle curiously. "What's in that potion?"

"You don't wanna know, believe me."

"Here they are at last," said Josiah, relieved as Buck, Ezra and Chris blinked into the room.

Buck looked around him at the room he remembered from his previous visit. Then he noticed the older man smiling at him. Buck stepped forward and offered his hand politely.

"Buck, I presume?" asked Josiah, shaking Buck's hand.

"Got it in one. Which brother are you?"

"I am Josiah, the oldest brother. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Josiah, there was no sign of that demon at Buck's place," affirmed Chris.

Buck asked a question the brothers hadn't realized the man might ask. "Did the demon kill my mom too?"

Ezra read Josiah's thoughts and found out he was wondering how they could tell Buck that his mother had been killed by a good person - or rather, the ghost of a good person.

"A demon wasn't the cause of your mother's premature demise - we'll discuss that later. We need to vanquish the miscreant who committed your father's murder first," explained Ezra, forgetting all about his false identity now Buck was learning the truth.

"Whoa, easy boy. I don't get all them fancy words. When Chris came into the office that time and started saying all them things, they were true weren't they? And your name is really Ezra, right?"

"Your assumptions are entirely correct, Buck." Ezra smiled - now he didn't have to answer to that awful name anymore. It would be easy enough for JD to have a computer error delete Eddie Spelling's government records.

"You lied to me and we were meant to be friends. I trusted you." Buck's face was becoming red with anger - he couldn't believe his friend had lied about his name all this time.

"I had to - there are demons looking out for 'Ezra Standish' and demons have the skill to look like humans, so chances were that there was at least one at the law-firm. So I had to pretend to be 'Eddie Spelling' - I couldn't risk telling you in case you blew my cover by accident," explained Ezra, using shorter words for Buck to understand.

"We have no time for this - that demon's going to sense Buck now that he has his powers and he'll be coming here for him any minute," said Chris, trying to hurry things along.

"I wonder if the Elders have any more information on him - don't lots of demons want to kill witches for their powers? There must be something which sets him apart. All demons are different in some way," said JD. Although they'd been able to identify the demon after more information on the evil supernatural from Gloria, JD felt there was something more that they might be missing.

"We have plenty of info. on him already - why would there be anything else we need to know?" asked Josiah; his youngest brother always wanted more information - sometimes more than they could obtain.

"I could check with the Elders," offered Nathan as he walked into the room, anxious to meet the new witch in town.

"Another of your brothers, Ez?" asked Buck, looking with curiosity at the African-American who looked to be in his late-twenties. There was something strange about the guy, but Buck couldn't figure out what.

"I might as well tell you the truth about him as well. Every witch has an angel to guide them in their fight against evil - these angels are known as Whitelighters and they also have magical powers, although every Whitelighter has the same powers. Nathan is our Whitelighter, not our brother."

The man in question strode over to Buck and offered his hand. "I'm Nathan Jackson. You must be Buck?"

Buck took Nathan's hand and shook it, noticing that the man's hand was warm and soft. "Yeah, that's my name. So you're an angel?"

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it in time. I better go and check with the Elders before HE gets here." Then Nathan orbed out, noticing how Buck stepped back in fear upon seeing the blue and white orbs.

"What the hell was that?" asked a startled Buck Wilmington, not sure what to make of the lights that had just appeared around Nathan. Nathan's form surrounded by the lights seemed to get sucked toward the ceiling, then the lights and Nathan were gone.

**To be continued…**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

A while later, Buck had been told of each of the brothers' powers and of the demon who had killed his father. Then they'd shown him the spell and potion and explained how he had to vanquish the demon once it appeared.

"Any chance you understand Latin?" asked JD, while Buck was studying the piece of paper that stated the vanquishing spell.

"Are you kidding? Of course I know Latin - my dad taught me it." Buck's voice became more serious upon mentioning his dad.

"Not surprising really - a lot of magic powers are named by combining Latin words, sometimes Greek ones," explained JD, who knew just about all the names of magic powers there were in the world.

"I can say all this Latin easily," reassured Buck, now quite relaxed talking about magic. He was even looking forward to defeating the demon that had killed his father.

"I'm sorry about your mom - I lost my mom when I was a kid, so I know what its like when you lose someone you care about," said JD gently.

Buck tried to keep his tears at bay - he didn't want to cry in front of these men, but he was really upset about losing his mom so soon after losing his dad. A fly buzzing nearby distracted Buck - a welcome distraction, thought Buck as he watched the insect flying wherever he liked - able to fly away from all this if it wanted. It was too much for him that he'd lost both of his parents in the same year. He just couldn't handle all this magic stuff while he had his parents' deaths on his mind.

JD had turned away to allow Buck some quiet time to think, and was having a quiet discussion with Ezra about how they could explain that their mom's ghost had killed Buck's mom, so he didn't notice when the human form of Buck disappeared.

Chris came into the room with a tray of coffees - they might as well try to get in refreshments while they waited for the demon to sense Buck. "Where's Buck?" he asked, noticing that Buck wasn't anywhere to be seen now.

JD turned back to where Buck had been standing and was startled to discover that Buck had disappeared - 'silently,' he added, as he hadn't heard their friend leaving the room.

"You've scared him off now!" Ezra shouted at JD, directing a glare at the teen.

Chris wondered if Buck's disappearance could be related to his magic power; they hadn't seen his changing power yet and it was clear that Buck couldn't control it, so he could change at any time without a moment's notice. "Any chance that he's transformed into something?" he suggested to the two brothers who were present.

Ezra started to concentrate on reading Buck's mind, intent on reading any thoughts that would give away Buck's new form. He hadn't told Buck of his mind-reading or mind-control powers yet. He didn't want to make Buck feel any more uneasy than he already did.

'If I can just make it to that open window, I can escape,' thought Buck as he noticed the open window in the lounge.

"JD, quickly close the window!" urged Ezra, now able to work out Buck's new identity and location. While JD ran to the window, Ezra picked up a glass from the table - luckily an empty glass.

'Yeah, as if you can really catch me,' thought Buck, zooming around the room to avoid being caught and enjoying the freedom of being a fly - that was until he got caught in a spider's web that hung down from the ceiling - he hadn't seen that. If Buck could've talked he would've cursed.

"It isn't all fun being a fly," said Ezra with a grin, as he watched the fly struggling to free himself from the web. Ezra had spotted the fly and had been following it with his eyes - it would be awful if they lost the fledgling witch.

'He can't know I'm a fly!'

"I do know that you are a fly, Mr. Wilmington - I'm smarter than I may appear to be." Ezra carefully took the fly out of the web and put it on a magazine on the coffee table, then quickly placed the glass over the top, so Buck was now trapped.

Buck tried to push the glass over, but only managed to bang against the walls of his glass prison - this wasn't what he'd been expecting.

Josiah walked into the room then, wondering when the demon was going to show up - he was certainly taking his time. The oldest brother looked around, wondering where Buck had gone.

"Mr. Wilmington has changed," informed Ezra as he met Josiah's questioning look. "He is now safe from harm's way."

"What has he changed into, Brother? You must be aware that we need him human to vanquish the demon."

"It is not my responsibility to keep our friend in his human form, Mr. Sanchez. He has free-will and is at liberty to do whatever he pleases."

"Umm, I mentioned his mom and I think he started getting upset about her," recalled JD - he'd caused Buck to change and now they wouldn't be able to vanquish the demon.

"I can read his emotions clearly; he's really unhappy," said Chris. He also had empathic power and could sense people's emotions - it was a very useful power at times.

"So when he saw a fly and felt like things were getting too much for him; he DESIRED to become a fly to try to escape things - that's it!" said JD.

"What?"

"Desire mixed with seeing the object he wants to become are the triggers for his transformation power," said JD, his voice becoming slightly high-pitched with excitement at his discovery.

"So we need him to desire to become human again to turn him back," added Chris. He realized that Buck's power could be very useful for fighting demons.

Nathan came back amidst his blue and white orbs that slowly vanished leaving him behind. "The witch-killer isn't just killing witches for their powers," he revealed, getting the attention of the men present with the startling revelation. "He's trying to kill off witch family-lines so there won't be any future generations, and it looks like someone hired him to do it."

"That would explain why he's after Buck. We need to get him back to being a witch so he can kill the demon when he arrives," said Josiah, looking toward the glass on the coffee table.

"Speaking of Buck..."

"Mr. Wilmington has metamorphosed into a winged entity after acquiring a yearning to evade true reality," informed Ezra, again demonstrating his extensive vocabulary.

"Huh?" asked Nathan, a puzzled expression on his face.

"He said Buck has changed into a fly because he wanted to escape from RL," said JD, abbreviating 'real life' as usual. RL was shorthand for real life and saved typing the whole two words on a computer or cell phone.

"I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be than a fly. It won't change the fact that he's lost both his parents in the same year though."

"We need to stop any more witches losing their lives first, then we'll help him deal with his losses," said Chris, hiding all emotion from his voice. He was angry that Buck wasn't being given any time to grieve for his mother, but they had to stop the demon taking any more lives first.

"One good thing though, is that the demon won't go after any other witches until he has destroyed one family line," explained Nathan. "Since Buck is the Wilmington witches' only chance of future generations by procreation, the demon won't go after anyone else until he's got Buck."

'Procreation, now that's something I'd rather practise as a human,' thought Buck. He'd been listening to Nathan's every word with great interest.

"I think he'd like to return to his true form now, Gentlemen," said Ezra, walking over to the upside-down glass and lifting it. Then he carefully placed the fly on the floor. He wasn't sure what would happen if Buck tried to turn back still under the glass.

Then Buck changed back into a human. "Being a fly ain't so much fun as I thought it might be, guys."

"We're glad to hear it, Buck," said Chris with a smile. "Now we have to vanquish the witch-killer, otherwise you'll have a homicidal groupie for life."

"Interesting wording, Chris," said Ezra with a chuckle.

"Buck," said JD, walking over to the man and handing him the vanquishing potion, "when he appears you need to start saying the spell, then throw the potion at him and continue saying the spell until it's finished. Say it in Latin as well, just in case that is needed."

Buck took the bottle and looked at the dark liquid through the clear glass. "Lucky I'm a skilled pitcher. I just need the spell now."

JD handed Buck the paper with the spell on. The teenager had been looking after it for when they needed to give it to Buck.

A cloud of purple smoke suddenly appeared a short distance in front of Buck. When it cleared, a purple and white demon with red eyes stood there, looking at Buck in disgust. The demon hated witches - especially live ones.

"This is no time for being scared," said Chris; his empathic power told him that Buck felt terrified of the demon.

"Witch-killer, power-thief," chanted Buck, then threw the potion straight onto the demon, which began to smoke. Then he continued the spell, "I strip you of all powers, and through my grief, I call upon my family, to banish you from this plane for all eternity." The demon became enveloped in a thick cloud of black smoke until he couldn't be seen anymore. He let out a chilling howl, then the smoke-cloud vanished, taking the demon with it. Buck hadn't needed to say the Latin part of the spell after all.

Buck collapsed into a sitting position on the floor, suddenly feeling weary.

Chris sat down beside him with a supportive hand on Buck's shoulder. "It gets easier, believe me. Your pain will lessen in time."

"How about we take you to our favorite night-spot? You'll like it there," said JD, sitting on the other side of Buck.

"Whatever you like," mumbled Buck, not really caring what they did next - it wouldn't bring back his parents, who he missed so much.

"Perhaps we should refrain from visiting Senorita Recillos for a while," suggested Ezra, feeling sorry for Buck.

"Senorita Recillos?" asked Buck, intrigued by the exotic-sounding name and that 'Senorita' meant it would be a female with an exotic surname.

"She's our friend who works at the night-club," explained JD, picturing the pretty South-American waitress.

"I'm feeling a bit better already, let's go," said Buck with a little enthusiasm, as he stood up and started toward the hallway, temporarily forgetting about grieving. Getting his mind off things might help.

"I neglected to mention his fondness for the fairer sex," said Ezra with a smile, glad that his friend had perked up, although he hadn't meant to be the cause of it by mentioning a woman.

"It won't hurt him to stop thinking about his parents for a couple of hours or so," said Chris, conveying to Ezra that he hadn't done anything wrong by inadvertently lifting Buck's spirits.

"Did the demon come?" asked Vin, walking into the room.

"He came, he saw, he got vanquished," said JD with a grin - trust Vin to miss all the action!

"Good. Where's Buck goin'?"

"To meet a certain waitress and to celebrate his first vanquish."

"Count me in," said Vin with a smile.

"We're all going," said Josiah in a voice that no-one would argue with.

The men went and put their coats on - the club was a short walk away so they wouldn't need to drive. They filed out the front door, with Josiah pausing in the doorway behind the others.

"Another day, another demon," he said to himself, then stepped outside and used his telekinesis to close the door gently behind him.

**To be continued…**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Buck woke up the next morning lying in a bed that wasn't his own, in a room he didn't recognize. He looked about him, confused and trying to work out how he'd got there. He didn't remember much about the night before and didn't even remember going to bed in the room.

"Hey, my bed soft enough for ya?" asked a man with shoulder-length medium brown hair, standing beside the bed.

"Your bed?" asked Buck, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Yeah, they all decided you could sleep in MY bed," said Vin, with slight anger in his voice.

Buck put his hand to his now-throbbing head. "How much did I drink last night?"

"Enough ta drown in I reckon. Had ta orb ya back here b'fore ya collapsed."

"That wasn't a dream then?"

"Buck, you better get up or you'll be late for work," warned JD, as he walked into the room in only his pants; then opened a closet.

"Oh, sh..." cursed Buck, noticing the time on the wall-clock.

"Better watch yer words, Pal - Ma an' Pa can hear yer every word and they ain't too keen on cursin'," warned Vin, before Buck could complete his sentence.

"But they're dead ain't they?"

"They're watchin' us from heaven an' I don't want ta upset them."

"I'll have to miss breakfast. You got anything for my head?" asked Buck, starting to recall dancing at the club and flirting with a few women, including the pretty waitress called Inez, although he could recall her resisting his advances.

"Sure," said Vin, then put a hand palm outward in front of Buck's forehead. A bright yellow glow came out of Vin's hand, and Buck felt his headache dissipating.

"Thanks, that's magic," said Buck, then realized the double meaning and chuckled.

"It's nice to hear you laughing," said Josiah cheerfully, as he walked into the bedroom wearing a navy suit complete with matching tie.

"I had a good time last night, thanks."

"When you're in the magic business, you can't just walk around mourning lost loved-ones all the time. We've all lost someone we love in this family and we know we have to get on with our lives. That doesn't mean we don't miss them though - because we do." Josiah's voice lowered on the last three words - Gloria and Terrence had been very loving parents, even more loving than his real ones before his mother had died. Then the man felt a supportive grip on his shoulder.

"None of us will ever stop mourning the deaths of those we've loved and lost - but we can work our damned hardest to stop more being lost," said Chris sombrely, still touching his older brother's shoulder in support. Chris missed Gloria and Terrence a lot as well. The two oldest missed them the most as they had been with the Potters the longest.

"I have to get going..." Buck started to say, but was cut off when a mass of white orbs appeared in the room.

A man with dark-brown hair appeared when the orbs had vanished and stepped forward. "Buck, there's no need for you to go to work at the law-firm anymore. No-one there remembers you, and Mr. Anderson never worked there."

"What?" Buck couldn't believe what he was hearing - if what the man said was true, then there must have been some magic used to wipe people's memories at the company. Buck was slowly believing in magical happenings and beings, but it still seemed slightly unreal to him.

"I WAS Mr. Anderson, but really I'm a Whitelighter and my name is Andrew Jameson. I was only at the company to watch out for you, but I wasn't allowed to tell you of your true destiny. I was your father's Whitelighter, so I owed it to him to watch out for you. I wasn't able to heal your father as he was already dead when I got there, and I can't restore life to the dead. I have since seen your father and he doesn't blame me for what happened, as neither of us were expecting that demon to attack him. I would've become your Whitelighter."

"What do you mean 'would've become mine'?" asked Buck; noticing that all the brothers had left the room by then. Buck didn't mind being left alone with Andrew though; he felt safe with the man and could only sense good in him.

"I've been re-assigned now. The Elders would prefer that Nathan be your Whitelighter, now that you're friends with the Potter witches."

"I'd like you as my Whitelighter since you was Dad's," said Buck, remembering how good and kind-hearted his father had been and how honored he'd be to have his dad's Whitelighter working for him.

"The Elders' decision is final, I'm sorry. I would've been proud to be the Whitelighter to the son of such a courageous and selfless witch. I am allowed to come and check on you occasionally though," said Andrew. "How are you coping with things, Buck?" Andrew looked into Buck's eyes as if he could find an answer there. It must be a lot for Buck to cope with, especially because he'd lost his mother as well.

"I'm not sure, but I am starting to believe in stuff I never imagined was real. I never believed in demons before, but seeing that purple one convinced me. I feel much happier now I've killed the guy who got dad."

"Buck, I have to go now. There's someone else who wants to see you. When I'm able to, I will be watching you to see how you're doing. Be careful," said Andrew, then the white orbs reappeared and took him away.

"Bye Andrew, and thanks." Buck felt grateful to the man for looking out for him at work - maybe the demon might've attacked if Andrew hadn't been there. Everything seemed to be making sense to Buck, even if it did sound slightly far-fetched.

"Buck, turn around and let me see you," said a soft male voice that sounded vaguely familiar to the young man.

Buck obeyed and stood looking in shock at the solid form of his father. "Dad? But h-how?"

"I'm a ghost, Buck - sometimes ghosts are allowed to leave the spirit plane for a while. There are also spells to call ghosts to your plane, but they should only be used if it's really necessary."

Buck walked nervously to his father and his father wrapped his arms around his son in a hug. Buck found himself at a loss for words - he was so happy to see his father again - even if he was only a ghost.

Buck's father then let go of his son to address him. "I've been watching you for a long time, and I feel bad that I couldn't help you become a witch sooner. You have a lot to learn and the Potters' sons are the best teachers for you. I am hopeful they will let you stay here for a while - you are vulnerable to evil until you have learned to properly control your powers."

"I think I'm getting better with the transformation one, but that's the only power I know of - do I have others?" asked Buck - it hadn't escaped his notice that his father had said 'powers', meaning he must have more than one.

"There is another power very different from the first, but you won't be able to use it until you are more experienced with magic. You need to practise changing your shape, so that you only use it when necessary and not by accident. It could prove fatal if you change shape by accident at a critical time," explained Buck's father.

"I remember Mom saying I have my great-grandpa's powers. What powers do you have?"

"When I was alive, I could move objects in my line of vision with my mind. I only received my powers about twenty years ago and I too was very sceptical when I was first told about the existence of real magic. After I became a witch, I saved a lot of innocents and killed even more demons - for all this I gained a good reputation in the Wiccan world and made a great many friends. You must carry on the work which I started - there is still a lot of evil in the world."

"I promise I will, Dad," vowed Buck; he hadn't known that his dad had been such a hero - now it was up to him to carry on his father's work.

"Thank you for vanquishing the demon that killed me - I feel more at peace now that justice has been served. I see you doing a lot of good in the future, so long as you listen to what you are told and don't stray from your path. I have to go now. Farewell Buck," said Mr. Wilmington, who was then enveloped by a mass of yellow orbs that took him back to the spirit plane.

Buck walked out of the room to find the brothers and to start being a proper male witch - he would do his best for his parents. He believed that they really were watching him from the spirit plane and would be watching his every move. He would make them proud like he had always striven to do when they were alive. Buck couldn't wait to start saving innocents - he couldn't imagine a more worthwhile job to have - even if he wouldn't get paid for it, he suspected. He'd have to find a new job to earn money when he wasn't saving innocents and vanquishing demons.

**The End - except for the last chapter that is like the epilogue.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10/Epilogue**

A few days later Buck had settled into the Potter House and was gradually learning more about magic and the brothers. Every night one of the brothers would tell him their story of when they were rescued and had come to live at the house. It had started with Josiah's story and the brothers had decided to take turns by age in descending order, so the half-brothers JD and Vin would tell their shared story last. Even Josiah could remember quite clearly about when he was rescued.

Josiah came into the house at lunch-time on that particular day and motioned for Buck to follow him upstairs. The young man curiously followed as Josiah led him into the room that had been off-limits to Buck until now.

"This is our special magic room," explained Josiah. "We keep magical supplies hidden here, away from enemies and any friends who aren't aware of our magic. As you have learnt, magic can be very startling to those who don't believe it exists. There are those in the world who would enjoy selling our secret to the medi - then we would never be left in peace."

Buck nodded in agreement then walked over to a large, old book that rested on a table. The table wasn't much bigger than the tome resting on it. "Is this a spell book?" asked the brunet. Then he ran his finger over the complex triangular pattern on the front. He jumped back, blowing on his finger.

"The Book doesn't like people touching its special symbol," explained Josiah, as he walked over and looked at the symbol that now glowed red. "And yes, it is a spell book of sorts. It also has all of our family histories, potions, and various other things. Each generation of Potters has added to it. Unfortunately, our adoptive parents were the last survivors of that family-line, as they were unable to have their own children. The Elders chose them to rescue endangered children of other witch-lines as well as non-magical children. They couldn't tell which children the magical ones were until after they had rescued them. Of course WE were the magical children who had no homes to go to after we were rescued, so we were adopted by them. We all kept our previous surnames though."

Buck walked over to the book again and this time didn't touch it. His finger still felt quite warm. "What does the symbol mean?" he asked softly, nervous of this amazing book.

"This book was created by the Elders when the first magical Potter started our family-line many centuries ago. To start with, the cover was blank, but after I was rescued, this symbol began to light up. The Elders wouldn't tell us what it meant though - as though telling us might put us in danger." Josiah opened the book to show Buck what was inside.

Buck looked on wide-eyed, excited by what he was learning.

As Josiah got a few pages in, he looked surprised by something and Buck looked closer at the book. He was surprised to see that at the top of the page it said "The Wilmington Family".

"It's a sign from the Elders," said Josiah with joy in his voice. "They were the ones who added all our families to this book and now they have added yours as well. It means that you are meant to be here with us. You are embracing your true destiny, Brother." Josiah smiled warmly at the new witch.

"I really need you all, now that my parents have gone," said Buck. "I was really close to them when they were still alive and without all this, there would now be a large hole in my life."

"When Mother and Father died, I had my brothers and we all helped each other through our grief," sympathized Josiah; then he remembered something he meant to show their new unofficial brother. "I need to show you something else."

Josiah led Buck over to a small window and opened it. Then he looked out, and Buck stood beside him, also looking out. Outside was a magnificent view for miles around. "Wow," whispered Buck in awe, looking out at all the houses, streets and scenery.

"I find that just looking out at the view helps me relax. Things can be stressful at times in this house. It isn't easy living with several younger brothers, and having to fight demons and protect innocents as well."

"Thanks for showing me these things, Josiah."

"You can come in here any time you wish, but please tell at least one of us before you decide to try any magic. Spells and potions can sometimes give you more than you expect and can have adverse effects on the caster," warned Josiah. He remembered several times when his brothers had tried out new spells and potions without anyone knowing. Then it was either him or his parents who had eventually found out what had happened and had to put everything right. He couldn't help a laugh escaping, as he remembered some of the events that could be laughed at afterwards.

"What's so funny?" asked Buck, having no idea what Josiah was thinking.

"The things that have happened to my brothers when they have tried out spells in here. They weren't funny at the time, but after everything was set right they became amusing. I'm sure they'll tell you in their stories."

Buck smiled; everything was turning out fine and he was actually enjoying his new magical life. He looked forward to saving some innocents and vanquishing some demons.

**The End – until the next story's ready!**


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